The United Democratic Party (UDP) on Thursday expressed concern over the proposed acquisition of land by the state government on behalf of the nine cement plants in Jaintia Hills to facilitate the process of compensatory afforestation. According to the UDP acting Secretary Allantry Dkhar, there should be other options than transfer of land. “Land alienation is one issue…fail to understand why government facilitating transfers of land when they can lease out and do compensatory afforestation,” Dkhar said. Dkhar also alleged the UDP has learnt that the government was planning to acquire land in East Khasi Hills district for the purpose of compensatory afforestation of cement plants in Jaintia Hills. The government had recently informed that the cement companies were willing to compensate for the loss of forest and have submitted an application in this regard. Nine cement companies operating in Jaintia Hills were found to have violated provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, the said companies have now agreed to buy double of the land misused by them and subsequently use them as part of afforestation programmes.